Here we are at the end of the third week in March already… how did that happen? I apologize for my lack of communication for the last 12 days, but there hasn’t been all that much to report. To summarize (in case you’ve got places to go and things to do!), we have been trying to get our class schedules finalized, dragging ourselves to classes when it’s still sunny and vacation-like, and resisting School Mode using all means available to us, most of which involve partying. Now, for a few selected details…
Classes are alright. I love Marcelo, our professor for Poesía y Sociedad, so that class is fine. It’s guaranteed to at least make me think every day, and it’s a non-stressful environment since we know the teacher and each other and feel safe asking questions and trying our best to speak intelligently. The class I’m taking to complete my Spanish major is called Siglo de Oro, and it’s a bit daunting just because it’s with mostly Chileans, a teacher I don’t know, and we’re planning to read—among many other things—all of Don Quixote (I’ll be finding the English version!). Some days it’s interesting and some days I am really bored because the teacher talks the entire time (much different from my Lit classes at
I am excited, though, about the service placement I’m going to have. I’m planning to go, once a week, to a center called Cerro Navia Joven and work with the Proyecto Madres Adolescentes Jovenes, which is a program for young mothers and their children. I’ll be hanging out with the kids, talking to the girls, and hopefully helping with some workshops and events. I think Lizzie is going to the same site (and maybe Caitlin too), so I’m looking forward to experiencing that with her/them also. I just want to feel like I’m DOING something. At
One day while on campus, I decided it was time to locate the Campus Ministry office and see what sorts of things I could get involved in. I asked around until I figured out where it was, and I climbed the strange outdoor spiral staircase up to the door and walked in, only to be greeted by several stares (friendly ones). So, I stumbled over some words, basically stating that I was involved with Campus Ministry at
I do love the UAH campus. It’s small and charming and doesn’t intimidate me as much as it did at first. The students are all really friendly, though the effort obviously needs to come from both directions. It’s still a little scary to feel like I stick out so much when I walk through the courtyard, but I’m beginning to realize that, despite the way it feels, not everyone is looking at me. People have better things to do, for the most part, than stare at us and talk about us, so that has been a humbling and relieving realization. They’re all just 20-something-year-olds like us and are very nice and approachable. In fact, after our Orientation day, a girl named Francesca just came up to a group of us and invited us to go for a few drinks with her and all of her friends from the Political Sciences college (people tend to hang out with kids in their majors, I think). A bunch of us went with them to a bar down the street (at 2pm or something absurd!), and it was fun because we mingled and talked in Spanish and met a lot of people, most of whom I don’t remember now (too many names!), but that’s OK. Most of them were first-year students and were all 18 or 19, but they seemed and looked a lot older… or maybe that’s just because we were scared of them!
My “summer vacation” ended on a good note. Alexia’s visit proved to be a lot of fun, and it was really nice to get to know her a little bit because I hear so much about her from my Chilean family (well, OUR Chilean family!). She’s a sweet girl and her boyfriend, Miguel, is nice and entertaining. I hung out with the two of them and
Caitlin, Liz, and I decided that we wanted to get one more Pool Day in before beginning classes, so one day, we stocked up on some wine and snacks and returned to Cerro San Cristobol to visit the other pool high up on the hill. I actually liked this pool better because it felt a bit less ritzy and we were able to set up camp in a grassy area. By some strange coincidence, we ran into a girl we’d met during our time at Torres and had a nice talk with her. We had plenty of great conversation amongst ourselves too, as we always do on Pool Days, and it was a lovely way to end our lazy summer days. The best part was that the pool, though it lacked lanes, per se, was pretty suitable for swimming “laps,” so I actually got a decent swim in, which I’d been craving. It felt SO wonderful! To end our great day, we had dinner at El Huerto,
Lauren, a girl in my program, hosted a barbecue at her house recently as well. She invited all of us, and it was a lot of fun because there are some new people in our program who just arrived and it was a chance to meet them as well as socialize with everyone else. Unlike in January, we don’t all hang out everyday after class anymore, so it’s nice every so often when someone pulls something like this together. The expectation was that everyone bring some food or beverage to the party, and we all got very excited to make delicious dishes to pass. It became a competition, sort of. Liz, Caitlin, and I wanted to make our fantastic fruit salad but then we realized that Laura, the only other person with our “secret recipe,” had told Stefani and Evie that they should make the fruit salad with her, so our idea was taken. We were stumped for a long time until Lizzie suggested we bring some vegetables to grill (very smart), some vino (very necessary), and something else (I quickly filled in that blank with a suggestion of something sweet). We couldn’t think of a dessert to make for awhile, but I recalled that Mom’s Scotcheroos (some people call them Special K bars, I guess) are delicious and do not require cooking. So, in the
We cooked at my house and, at some point in the process, Gladis came home and almost had a heart attack. The contents of her kitchen counter at this point were as follows: peanut butter, manjar, a box of Cheerios, three bars of chocolate, a bottle of wine, honey, and sugar. She claims that no one here eats such things, but she secretly wanted to try it (I know because she asked if there were left-overs the next morning!), so I need to make some more for her sometime. Anyway, the cooking went pretty well except for the fact that we mistakenly mixed our honey with salt, which we thought was sugar, thereby ruining the honey (we had to go buy more and it’s EXPENSIVE!) and making ourselves feel pretty stupid. I called Mom to ask her for the actual recipe just to make sure we had the quantities right, which was a bit humorous/frustrating because Skype was having a crabby day and because I felt bad calling her, when we hadn’t talked in awhile, just to ask for the recipe. But it was all worth it because the treats turned out AMAZINGLY and everyone at the party flipped over them because we all crave yummy home foods so much. Surprisingly, for a bunch of college kids, we had a fantastic spread at this barbecue: tons of meat, our grilled veggies, a seven-layer dip and chips, yummy quiche, a beet salad, a pasta salad, a mayo-dill dip and chips, our treats, peach cobbler, a “Better than Sex” cake made by none other than Tony, plenty of wine and pisco, the fruit salad, CHEESE, and bread. Pretty delicious!!
We left the barbecue and probably should have gone home but chose to go out dancing instead. We went to Bellavista at the club where Caitlin’s brothers get us in for free, so that was nice. It’s always a good time there, and I arrived home plenty late (or early, depending on how you look at it), but that didn’t really matter because there was nothing I had to do the next day. I took it easy around the house, hanging out with Kena and Gladis, watching “Mamma Mia” (which we didn’t think was that great), and catching up on some correspondence with some of you! On Sunday, we went to Mass (I had to read again!!) and had a leisurely, yummy lunch. Afterwards, I met up with Liz and Caitlin to visit the Chilean
This past week, though, has been pretty crazy. First of all, we’ve still been sorting out various issues with classes and other things that remain disorganized. Isabel is stressed and we understand that but we are also frustrated with her because it sometimes seems like she’s not doing ANYTHING to help us with stuff. No one here ever seems to have any answers, and while we’ve become a bit more patient with this routine and can sometimes see the humor in it, certain things are important!! It makes me nervous, too, because this can have some serious repercussions later on; for example, my lovely friend Ali, who studied here last spring, is STILL waiting on her grades from UAH, and she needs them to graduate from
Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. I had classes until three, a visit to my service site (which took awhile to find/travel to/return from), and then some shopping to do for a school field trip the following day (details in a moment). After that, Lizzie, Caitlin, and I were hot, tired, hungry, and crabby. Things always go wrong at that point, of course, and little things added up—I needed to recharge my cell phone and couldn’t find anywhere to do it, we tried to get some groceries and the store was PACKED with slow-moving people, and then we found out that plans had changed and people weren’t going to the Irish pub as planned anymore because it turned out to be lame. I wanted to cry just one tear of frustration, but we held it together long enough to make a decision, go to the bar where everyone else was, get ourselves seated, and order three big green beers. Now, I don’t even really like beer, but what’s an Irish girl supposed to do on St. Patty’s Day?! As it turns out, this beer was actually pretty good (either a result of the food coloring, the actual quality of the beer, or, more than likely, my emotional state at the time). We also got ourselves some delicious food and fries and became much happier. At that point, someone in our group suggested Irish Car Bombs, which was either a really good idea or a really bad one. I had one of these shots on my 21st birthday so, thankfully, had a rough idea of what I was supposed to do with the half-full glass of beer and the shot of Bailey’s and Jameson that was set in front of me. We all dropped the shot glasses in to the beer and chugged the yummy frappuccino-like mixture, toasting first to all things Irish, of course. All of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities just increased my urge to visit
As if we weren’t partied out, I woke up the next morning bright and early, packed a bag for the paseo, which was essentially a “field day,” and got to school at 9am to meet everyone, catch the bus, and go on this very ambiguous little outing. Here’s the deal about these paseos: pretty much all of the Universities here cancel classes for a day at the beginning of the year and sponsor an outing for the student body, usually to a beach or camping place. The main things that occur at these outings are socializing, dancing, drinking, eating, more drinking, more intense dancing, frolicking, and drinking. We couldn’t get over the idea of this being a school-sponsored event, but it’s pretty hilariously awesome. In case you think that it can’t get anymore absurd, try to wrap your head around this: some of the public universities, to raise money for these outings, actually promote certain hazing rituals. All week, we saw zombie-like freshman strolling the streets barefoot, wearing torn clothes covered in what looked like bird poop, spray paint, egg, and anything else disgusting you can imagine, looking haggard and disgusting, begging for money. I’m not even kidding you—this is how some of these outings are paid for, and it’s a totally accepted thing (though not at our Jesuit school). Kena actually had to do it the other day, and I felt terrible for her, but it was just a fact of life for her.
Speaking of Kena, and interrupting my narration of the paseo for a moment, something sort of humorous occurred with her the other day. I returned home from class and was about to relax for awhile when she asked me if I’d accompany her to her eye doctor appointment, which would only take a little while. Of course I said yes, and I assumed we’d be walking several blocks to a nearby clinic. I soon realized we’d be taking a bus, which was fine because I don’t have that much experience with them here (they’re called micros). We were about to board our bus when Kena realized she’d forgotten pretty much everything she owned at the house, so we had to turn around and go get her stuff. At this point, she didn’t seem to realize that we were going to be late, but I figured we might be. We got home and she couldn’t find her wallet, so we spent ten minutes telling everyone how she couldn’t find her wallet and then eventually we found it and started again on our adventure to the doctor. We caught the micro and were on it for AN HOUR. I had no idea we’d be going so far, but we rode it farther than I’ve been before, all the way to Las Condes, where Jill and some other people in my program live. Her appointment only took about ten minutes, but afterwards, we stopped in the mall just to browse the eyeglasses selection. She tried on about twenty-five pairs at three different stores and eventually purchased some cute frames. We returned at about 9pm, three hours later. I enjoyed the outing because I got to talk to her and she’s so sweet and because I got to see part of
The paseo itself was a blast. We weren’t sure what to make of the situation when we were dumped out of the bus at 10am, most of us hungry/tired/suffering from post-St. Patty’s Day infirmities, in what appeared to be a big field. We found some tables and put them together and some of the more zealous members of our group popped open their bottles of wine and pisco. Caitlin, Liz, and I were repulsed by the idea of our wine, so we munched on raisins, nuts, and cookies we’d brought and swore off wine until at least noon. We took a little walk around the area, which is basically a big campground with three pools, a swing set, lots and lots of tables, a little lagoon, and plenty of trees and open areas for playing around. I was very excited to play on the swings for awhile, and gradually, more buses arrived and the Chileans got the party started when the DJ set up his stuff and started playing the hits. (Katharine, I legitimately have ESP because I expressed a desire to hear some J-Timberlake and he was the very next song! I know you will deny that this is ESP.) We realized that we’d set up camp on the perimeter of the party and decided that we should move our big gringo mess closer to the party, so we packed up our stuff and relocated, which was a good decision. We checked the time—about 11:56am—and cracked open the vino. Why not? We’d also brought some other good snacks—avocado for making guacamole(!!), chips, chocolate-covered almonds (because I knew I’d need chocolate to get me through such a long day), and seedless red grapes!
Someone smart had brought a Frisbee, which I’ve been wishing I have for weeks. I was excited to run around in the big field with the Frisbee and some other kids, but people decided they wanted to just toss it around near our tables. I expressed my disagreement with this decision as I predicted that the disc would get lost in the pool nearby and/or hit someone or something. Also, there were too many people and not enough room to run, so everyone was just standing in a circle throwing it. For these reasons, I opted out, choosing to sit at the table and eat some more chips and gauc with Caitlin and Liz. I had just poured us all a glass (correction: plastic cup) of red wine (from a box… this is all very classy, people) when, suddenly, my wine was all over my tank top. Things happened very quickly—someone came over and grabbed the Frisbee, I lamented the loss of a good cup of wine and the fact that my oatmeal-colored shirt was covered in it, and I turned around and, fairly calmly, asked the group if they would now please toss the disc in the field! I think a lot of people are afraid of confrontation, even non-hostile confrontation, because they handled the situation really immaturely. Nobody said sorry, nobody even said anything. They stood in a circle, sort of giggling (that “funeral laugh”), sort of watching me clean up the wine on the table, the bench, Lizzie’s purse, my legs, and my shirt. I went to the bathroom with Lizzie and felt them all staring at my back as we walked away; it was a very bizarre, middle-school experience, and although I was quickly over the initial problem (the incident itself), I’m still annoyed at the fact that no one even acknowledged it.
The day shaped up after that. We stuck our feet in the pool for awhile and drank both of our boxes of wine (that’s a disgusting 3L in total), and we talked to a few Chileans. After awhile, Esteban and his friends appeared by our table (he’s one of the guys we’d met at the Superbowl party and he actually knows Josh because Esteban studied at Josh’s school in
It’s been a bizarre and crazy week, and this weekend promises to bring more of the same. Hanna’s turning 20 (she’s one of the babies here) today, and her host sister, Eli, who is a real sweetheart, has created an INSANE weekend of activities for her and all of us. The party begins at Hanna’s tomorrow night and continues at a nearby club, where we’re expected to stay until the wee hours of the morning, as is customary. At this point, when most people would go to sleep, we are going to get on a bus and go to a beach. We’ll stay at a beach house and sleep/party on the beach and SUPPOSEDLY go out that night (though I predict we’re all pretty much dead). I honestly would rather have a low-key weekend around here because I feel like we haven’t stopped moving lately, but I love Hanna and want to help her celebrate, so I suppose I’ll just have to try to take it a little easier while still partaking of these crazy celebrations.
I miss you all and had one very sad day this week when I really just wanted to be at home. It’s hard to be here sometimes, but I am enjoying myself thoroughly at the same time. I’ve had some nice conversations with my host mom and sister and cousins lately, and that has been really nice. I’m also lucky to have met some good friends here AND to have the opportunity every so often to talk to people from home. I recently Skyped with my family and sister, which was SO wonderful. I’m still trying to get in touch with Zak, as it hasn’t worked out well the last few times we’ve tried to set-up meeting times on Skype, and there are many of you who I’d love to talk to soon! It’s hard missing you all, but you’re in my thoughts quite often and I hope you are all doing well!!
I’ll write again when there is something interesting to say. Until then, take care, and I love you all!
Amanda
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